Chinese films will dominate Taiwan's Golden Horse film fest

Oct 1, 2010, 17:42 GMT

Taipei - Several Chinese films, including a gay film banned in China, have been nominated for the 47th Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan, which is dubbed the Chinese-language Oscars, the organizer said Friday.

Chinese actors and actresses will compete for the major awards against their Taiwanese counterparts, Wen Tian-shiang, head of the organizing committee, said.

China's Wang Xueqi (Body Guards and Assassins), Qin Hao (Spring Fever) and Ni Danhong (Judge) will vie for Best Leading Actor against Taiwan's Ethan Juan (Monga), he said.

For Best Leading Actress, it will be a race between China's Tang Wei (Crossing Hennessy) and Xu Fan (Aftershock) against Hong Kong's Sylvia Chang (Buddha Mountain) and Taiwan's Lv Liping (City Monkey).

Bodyguards and Assassins, a China-Hong Kong action film, tells the story of how the Chinese Republic's founding father, Sun Yat-sen, escaped assassin attempts when he visited Hong Kong in 1905 to discuss how to topple the Qing Dynasty.

The film has been nominated for nine awards, including Best Leading Actor, Best Director and Best Feature Film.

A controversial film is Spring Fever, which is banned in China due to its homosexual content. It has been nominated for Best Leading Actor and Best Found Effect.

Directed by Lou Ye, it is about a private investigator hired to spy on a man who is having a gay affair. But the investigator falls in love with the boyfriend of the man he is investigating.

If Spring Fever wins an award, it might annoy Chinese authorities, but would encourage China's gay rights movement.

Although China decriminalized sodomy in 1997 and dropped homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 2001, it still restricts homosexual activities, seeing them as anti-social.

The awards of the Golden Horse Film Festival will be announced on November 20.